


Don't Ask, Don't Tell (Grizzly Bear's Cherry Wine)

by IcyEarth



Category: The Society (TV 2019)
Genre: Cherry Wine, Hozier, M/M, camping babies, grizz is hozier, grizz plays guitar, the expadition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 17:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19024162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyEarth/pseuds/IcyEarth
Summary: Luke had told him to play, goddamnit, he’s too good to waste his talent behind closed doors.Grizz has always listened to Luke. Luke’s the quarterback, after all.





	Don't Ask, Don't Tell (Grizzly Bear's Cherry Wine)

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. This is my first fic in over two years, so play nice  
> 2\. I know don't ask don't tell is mostly over, but I thought it fit and I wrote it so hah.

The smoke from the fire isn’t drifting in the direction it should. The town was in the Northern Hemisphere, with the Atlantic ocean to the east. The smoke should go southwest. Instead it goes straight up. No one gathered is complaining, two days in the woods make them smell bad enough without smoke stains on their clothes. Grizz is sitting on his sleeping bag near the strung up foodbox, his book in his hand, but the words are almost swimming off the page. Bean is already in her tent with Gwen, working on their route for tomorrow and giggling the entire time. The remaining party members are sitting around the fire, roasting hotdogs for dinner. It feels… peaceful, in a convoluted way. The most peaceful Grizz has felt since the smell, because regardless of if they might starve to death or not, they’re okay for now.

His guitar lies, unplayed, by his partially set up tent. He hadn’t wanted to bring it, but Luke had thrown it at him at the last second and left him very little choice. Grizz made a point of only playing it the woods. Whenever he went to stay with Luke’s family in their cabin by the lake in the summer, he’d play every song he’s written over the school year. It was a tradition Grizz can’t really carry on when Luke’s whole family is gone and the road to the lake is gone with them. Luke had told him to play, goddamnit, he’s too good to waste his talent behind closed doors.

Grizz has always listened to Luke. Luke’s the quarterback, after all.

So he starts on the long process of setting up his tent, mind made up. After dinner, he’ll play a song he’s had swimming in his head since Sam.

Gwen knocks Bean over by accident, starting a roar of giggles from the tent, at around the same time dinner is announced. Grizz finishes staking his tent posts and wanders over to the fire. No harsh winds or clouds in the sky mean a leisurely setup is fine, and Grizz has rarely been more thankful. He snags his guitar with his left hand by the neck on the way, setting it on the ground beside him a safe distance back.

Wordlessly, a hotdog is passed to him, along with a slice of cheese and a handful of blackberries picked along the trail. It’s delicious, but Bean is staring at him weird.

“What?” Grizz questions her around a mouthful of food. Screw manners, he’s hungry. 

“Do you actually play guitar?” Bean tilts her head to the side as she asks, and everyone else is listening to their conversation with burning intent.

“...yeah?”

“I thought you brought it for aesthetic value, I won’t lie,” Bean admits.

“Play us something!” Gwen playfully demands, jostling him lightly from around Bean. Grizz has already scarfed down the rest of his hotdog, and he licks his fingers clean, smiling at Gwen over the top of Bean’s head. He twists and grabs the instrument, spinning it into playing position. He knows the tunning’s perfect, but he ‘checks’ it anyway, and experimentally tries the chords he has floating in his head. It sounds exactly how he wanted it to.

Gwen is looking at him in quiet aw.

“Sing,” She prompts softly.

‘Her eyes and words are so icy  
Oh but she burns  
Like rum on the fire  
Hot and fast and angry as she can be  
I walk my days on a wire’ 

Everyone is silent for a moment, until a handwave goes around the group that couldn’t mean ‘more’ anymore clearly if they’d shouted it.

‘It looks ugly, but it's clean,  
Oh momma, don't fuss over me  
The way she tells me I'm hers and she is mine  
Open hand or closed fist would be fine  
The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine  
Calls of guilty thrown at me  
All while she stains  
The sheets of some other  
Thrown at me so powerfully  
Just like she throws with the arm of her brother  
But I want it  
It's a crime  
That she's not around most of the time  
The way she shows me I'm hers and she is mine  
Open hand or closed fist would be fine  
Blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine  
Her fight and fury is fiery  
Oh but she loves  
Like sleep to the freezing  
Sweet and right and merciful  
I'm all but washed  
In the tide of her breathing  
And it's worth it, it's divine  
I have this some of the time  
The way she shows me I'm hers and she is mine  
Open hand or closed fist would be fine  
The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine’

No one asks who it’s about, and Grizz doesn’t tell them.

He doesn’t have to.


End file.
